Week 6 film review 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'

A Series of Unfortunate Events 2004

The author of the series, Lemony Snicket (the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler)

Director: Brad Silberling

Plot

The story follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arson house fire. The children are placed in the custody of their distant cousin Count Olaf, who begins to abuse them and openly plots to embezzle their inheritance. After the Baudelaire's are removed from his care by their parents' estate executor, Arthur Poe, Olaf begins to hunt the children down in various disguises, slaughtering a multitude of the children's relatives in the process.

My chosen scene

In the scene I have chosen the children are brought to their third relatives house. The house of Aunt Josephine. I chose this scene because I found the eccentric Aunt Josephine to be quite funny. She means well and is very kind to the children but her need to be overly cautious makes the living conditions quite difficult.

Characters

Violet: 'The Inventor'. The eldest of the children. Violet can invent things out of scraps for usual household technologies or in many cases saving the children from tricky situations throughout the film. You know Violet is about to invent something by how she ties up her hair with a ribbon. Violet is dressed in a long black dress with lacey designs. Violet seems to be the more emotional and hopeful out of the Baudelaire children. She also takes on the motherly role for her youngest sister Sunny can carries her around and holds her hand.

Klaus: 'The Reader'. The second oldest of the children and the only son. The Baudelaire children's parents had a massive library in the house containing every sort of book and Klaus liked nothing more than to spend the day in the library absorbing all the knowledge from those books. Everything Klaus read, he remembered. Klaus' brain is always active, questioning everything around him for answers, especially the spy glass all his relatives seem to have. Klaus was bitter towards his parents because they had no plans for them after they died, but I believe he was just lashing out in his own way mourning his parents.
Sunny: 'The Biter'. The youngest of the three. Sunny would practically bite anything around her. Extreme teething I suppose. She spoke only in goo's and gaa's, baby language that no one could understand but to her, she speaks quite well (according to the subtitles). She spends most of the time close to Violet, either in her arms or holding her hand. Sunny seems to have no sense of danger and is actually quite brave and brazen.
Aunt Josephine: The third relative the children go to live with. She is an overly cautious woman, obsessed with the slightest and ridiculous and often impossible dangers. This woman once was a brave outgoing woman who worked in a circus taming lions etc. But when her husband died she secluded herself in her house, living in fear of any possible danger around her. She lives  in a strangely unbalanced house hanging off the side of the cliff. She is dressed in a long black dress with large material masses on each shoulder. Her clothing looks difficult to move in. Her biggest interest, besides being overly cautious, is her love of grammar ... which is her downfall in the end.

Setting

My scene begins at 48:14 to 50:46 on the timeline. The scene is set at Aunt Josephine's house. Her house is strangely built so that the whole house is suspended off the side of a cliff over the lake Lacramose, which looks very structurally unsound. Otherwise the house has a nice homey interior where the living and dining area share the same space. The house is freezing cold because Josephine is too afraid to turn on the heating in case it explodes. The scene is mainly set at the front door and the kitchen table. The interior of the set is built in the studio. I imagine it's physically shaken during a certain point in the film where the children walk in the door the the house shakes. As for the exterior of the house I imagine computer graphics definitely made or enhanced the set. Overall I think this set, aunt Josephine's house is amazing. Such a crazy structurally unbalanced house that also reflects the mental state of aunt Josephine.

Mise-en-scene

The glass door knobs, cooker and the fridge are obvious props that are there for a reason. Although Josephine's fears are somewhat ridiculous later on in the film these props do exactly what she feared to the childrens disbelief.

Camera Work

• Establishing high angle shot of the house.
• View of the door.
• High angle loking at the children. 
• View of the door.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at children
• View of the door.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at children
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine. 
• Over the shoulder shot looking at children.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine.
• View of the children.
• Establishing. One point perspective shot of children entering the house.
• Close up of Josephine.
• Close up and pan shot following Josephines movement. 
• Close up of Josephine.
• Close up of children.
• Close up of Josephine.
• One point perspective looking at the characters.
• Close up of Josephine.
• One point perspective looking at the characters.
• Close up of soup.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Violet.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Violet
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Violet
• View of Josephine's back as she leaps out of her seat
• View of Klaus in the kitchen
• Close up of Josephine
• View of Klaus confused looking at the fridge and then Josephine.

Sounds and Music
There is no music in this scene. Just sound effects and dialogue.

Week 5 Film Review Ecstacy 1933

Ecstacy 1933

Director: Gustav Machatý

Plot: The film is about a young woman who marries a wealthy but much older man. After abandoning her brief passionless marriage, she meets a young engineer who becomes her lover.

Ecstasy was highly controversial in its time because of scenes in which the lead character, Emma, swims in the nude and runs through the countryside naked. It is also perhaps the first non-pornographic movie to portray sexual scenes, although never showing more than the actors' faces. The film was celebrated as the first motion picture to include a nude and sexual scenes.

Even though the movie file we were given was in german with no subtitles, the acting and the tones/ moods/ visuals of the movie were enough to convey whats going on I think. It's interesting watching this movie not fully understanding everything they say yet still understanding whats going on. 

My chosen scene:

In my scene the young man who bandaged up Emma's hurt ankle sits on the ground next to her and shuffles his hands into the grass. We see that he picks up a flower in one hand and weak bee in the other and tries coercing the hungry weak bee onto the flower. Emma notices this act of kindness and then suddenly turns away when she meets eye contact with him. Earlier on in the film her ex husband squashes a poor bee with the leg of the chair without a second thought. Purposely going out of his way to kill it. Emma looked at her husband disgusted. She seemed immediately taken with this young mans gentle kindness. As if he was a breath of fresh air and she just relaxes and takes in her peaceful surroundings. I like this scene mainly because it's the turning point in Emma's life. She lets go of the heart ache of her previous marriage and just soaks up her peaceful surrounding and appreciates the young dashing strangers kindness. She looks as if  a huge weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

Characters:

Emma: She is the main character of this movie. The young beautiful lady is first seen in this movie being carried over the threshold by her new and much older wealthy husband. As their relationship continues over a period of time it's obvious they are not like normal loved up newly weds. Emma grows increasingly lonely during her married life as her new husband continues to be cold towards her and basically ignore her. Eventually she grows tired of the marriage and run home to her father for support and soon divorces her husband. I noticed in this movie she seems to be the only character who has a name which emphasizes her lead role in the film. No other characters name is mentioned throughout the movie. She comes from a wealthy family and her father successfully breeds horses. She lives in her fathers mansion like home and everyday wears fine expensive looking dresses. She gives the impression of being a Lady or Dame.

When she meets the young engineer it's obvious she's not very fond of him, mainly out of embarrassment and stubbornness I believe. But she was soon taken with his kindness and gentleness. It was almost as if his kindness was a breath of fresh air to her especially since she was in a smothering cold marriage for so long. Eventually she gets into a relationship with this man and they both seem to be extremely happy and loved up together. However, once Emma's ex-husband commits suicide, Emma seems to be overcome with guilt. Emma and new lover decide to leave/ run away together but as the young man nods off, Emma sneaks away, sorrowfully whispering goodbye to the man she loves and gets on the train leaving him behind. Perhaps she felt she didn't deserve to be happy out of guilt of her ex-husbands death. Yet instead of being happy with the man she loved she made the same mistake twice and broke two men's hearts.

Young engineer: We don't really get to know whole lot about the young engineer. He works on a site where men were building roads and small bridges. He seems like the typical dashing prince charming type coming along on his horse to find a damsel in distress, which is what technically happened. He laughs slightly seeing Emma hiding in the bushes in the nip, but he helps by returning her runaway horse and clothes to her. He seems immediately taken with her and watches her leave. When she trips and hurts her ankle he immediately helps her and bandages her foot. They both relax together on the grass where he finds a weak bee and helps it out by coercing it onto a flower. He seems to be a kind, gentle man who's always smiling and ready to help out anyone. It's obvious as the film continues that he loves Emma. Carrying around her pearl necklace and tenderly smiling as he stares upon it. Taking her out to dinner and taking the time to make sure the evening is perfect by laying out flowers on the table etc. It was also clear he was left heart broken when she left him. We see him back to work trying to continue with his life yet he has lingering painful thoughts/ dreams/ fantasies of her where they started a family together and that's where the film ends. 

Setting:

My scene begins at 00:36:00 on the timeline and ends at 00:38:40. It's set in a lovely sunny field with large trees scattered throughout. The two main characters, Emma and the young engineer sit on the grass in front of whats left of a broken tree.

Mise-en-scene:

The bee/ fly seems to be symbol that appears several times throughout the film. I'm not entirely sure what it could mean though. At times I believe the bee could be a symbol for Emma herself. When her ex-husband swatted, squashed and killed the fly, perhaps it meant he was killing their marriage and even slowly killing her. When the young engineer brought the weak bee back to life, perhaps it meant he gave Emma some hope in her life because of their meeting. When Emma blew the bee off the flower and watched it fly away it's almost as if she embraced her freedom. She wasn't shackled to a lonely marriage any longer and it looked as if a massive weight left her shoulders.

Camera Work:

• Establishing shot. Emma and the young engineer sitting on the grass.
• Zoom in/ close up-  Emma and the young engineer sitting on the grass.
• Close up on Emma's face.
• Close up on young engineer picking up bee and flower.
• Close up of his hands trying to coerce the bee onto the flower.
• Close up of Emma looking over her shoulder.
• Close up of young engineer concentrating on the bee.
• Close up of Emma looking over her shoulder.
• Close up of his hands trying to coerce the bee onto the flower.
• Close up of Emma looking over her shoulder.
• Close up of engineer looking at bee on the flower, then looks at Emma smiling.
• Close up Emma looks away.
• View of the couple. Emma in front of Engineer. He hands her the bee and flower and blows at them.
• Close up Emma smiling at the little bee. Blows at it and watches it fly off.
• View of the couple from the right.
• Close up on couples faces from the right.
• Low angle shot looking up at the top of a tree and the sky.
• Low angle close up looking up at Emma's face.
• Low angle shot looking up at the top of a tree and the sky.
• Fades of a view of part of a tree trunk
• Zoom on tree trunk
• Fade low angle close up of the flower of a thistle.
• Close up on grass
• Panning to the left shot of grass
• Establishing shot. Couple sitting down in the distance. Pan downwards and fade to black.

Sounds and Music:

This film is almost like a silent movie. There is very little dialogue or sound effects and they are only added when necessary. Overall this film has a series of orchestral french like music over it. In the scene I have chosen the french song is played throughout and there are no sound effects. There are no layering of sounds in this scene. All you can hear is the orchestral song and the rustling sound of old recorded music, almost like the old record players.

Animatic 'Transition'

Here is my animatic for my animation short Transition. I found this surprisingly difficult to piece together! Mainly because of all my technical difficulties but also it was difficult figuring out the pacing, music etc. I put this together using Premiere Pro, Photoshop and After Effects.

The music or audio was the main issue for me. I originally pieced together an animatic that had way more sound effects and different music according to the mood of the scene but that was all too messy and hard to listen to. I then remembered a lovely melody from an animation I watched a while back and decided to track it down. It's called Meet Me Far by Anat Ben Hemo I think. When I listened to the song fully I quite liked it and thought it suited my animation. It's the kind of song that gives a variety of moods/ emotions depending on whats depicted in the animation.

Enjoy! :)

Tips for Improvement

• Title Safe area!
• The main aspect missing from my animatic is movement. Camera movement! All the shots are quite static. For example at the beginning during the establishing opening shots, there should be zooms and pans within the images to convey camera movement. Might simply add a 10% scale up on each of these shots to see what the look like.
• Have another look at the Da Vinci Demons animatic and you might try and apply this movement to my animation as I begin to produce the final elements. It will bring my imagery to life and ease my transitions.

Visiting Lecturer, Illustrator Alan Clarke

Alan Clarke is an award winning Irish Illustrator and occasional writer. His images conjure worlds that are whimsical, darkly comic, magical, sometimes grotesque, but always beautifully executed.  His book illustrations have garnered widespread acclaim. His work has been exhibited extensively in Ireland, as well as in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy and Japan, and is held in numerous galleries and private collections. He spoke on the main stage at Offest in 2010. His best known work includes illustrations for the ongoing 'Ross O'Carroll-Kelly' series, poster artwork for the Body and Soul Festival, and the incredible exhibition 'The Arcane Arcanum Arcanorum'.

His website: http://www.mralanclarke.com

Animation Short Storyboard

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Storyboard:

Establishing shot of a city. Sounds of cars and traffic. Slow zoom into the centre and fade to next shot.

Fade to a street level scene of the busy streets. Traffic and city sound effects continue. Fade to next scene.

Fade to a point of view shot opposite a dark alleyway. People/ creatures walking by normally.

Point of view shot from inside the alley watching the legs or short characters walking by. Low Angle.

Panning upwards shot from the ground up of a character sitting on the ground.

Panning upwards.

Finish panning upwards and focus on the gloomy characters head.

Character looks right out onto the street.

Character crawls towards the passersby on the footpath.

Passerby notices something and looks down.

Main character Shadey crawling along the ground like a zombie and reaching upwards.

Passerby is freaked out by zombie Shadey and quickly walks away off screen. Shadey’s hand visible at the bottom of the screen.

Shadey slumps back against the wall again.

Zoom focus on Shadey’s head looking down sadly. Shadey notices a blue light and looks up and notices something
.

Over the shoulder shot. View of a light orb character. Stares at Shadey for a moment. Blinks twice.

Establishing alley shot. Curious about what has appeared before him. Shadey reaches out to touch the Orb.

Zoom focus on Orb. As Shadey massive hand gets closer, the Orb pulls back slightly.

Zoom out to reveal more of the scene. Pause for a moment. Orb flies off screen to the right.

Front view focus on Shadey for a moment. Blinks twice.

Shadey stands up and runs to the right off screen. Camera follows as he stands.

Shadey pauses for a moment at the entrance of the alleyway. Looking around unsure. He then runs to the right around the corner off screen.

Zoom focus on child character holding it’s parents hand as it notices something.

Point of view shot of Shadey chasing after the Orb.

Zoom focus back on the child pointing at Shadey and tugging on his parents hand.

The child is ignored and tugged away himeself by his parent and they go offscreen.

One point perspective. Shadey running down the street, dodging people as he goes. Camera follows behind him. Possibly have fast paced background music to add to the tone.

Zoom focus on Shadey’s head as he struggles to run along. He looks up and notices something ahead. His eyes widen.

Establishing shot. Orb floating around in the distance. Disappears around the corner.

Zoom in gradually and panning to the left shot as the Orb floats along.

Hands suddenly creep in from off screen and surround and catch the Orb.

Zoom out establishing shot of two thugs who have captured the Orb.

Over the shoulder shot. Shadey catches up and notices the bullies/ thugs.

Shadey runs on screen from the right interrupting the bullies and trying to save the Orb but is stopped by the taller thug.

Zoom in on the shorter chubby thug who grows increasingly annoyed with Shadey pestering them.

Fed up, the thug throws the Orb to the ground. Orb flies off screen. Here a shattering glass sound.

Zoom focus on broken Orb on the ground.

Zoom focus on devastated Shadey.

Shadey kneels beside his beloved Orb, mourning.

Shadey’s tear filled eyes glow red with rage and he jumps off screen.

Focus on Shadey attacking the thugs in the distance. Everything else in the scene blurred.

Fight in the distance goes out of focus. Camera pans backwards slightly to reveal the broke Orb in full focus.

Zoom focus on broken Orb which starts to glow.

 Pan upwards from Orb as a smokey blue figure rises up from it.

Panning upwards.

Finish panning, focus on head.

Figure releases a bright burst of light.


Shot of Shadey covering his eyes from the blinding light.

Shot of thugs disintegrated b the blinding light.

White light fills the screen for a moment. Fades to next shot. (I made it grey so you can see the frame)

Panning upwards shot from the ground up. Revealing a new and transformed Shadey.

 Zoom focus on Shadeys head and shoulder. He looks up surprised.

Focus on Shadeys hand lightly holding the smokey figures hand.

View of smokey figure who has solidified into a woman.

Focus on Shadeys hand they both tighten each others grip gently.